CENOTAPH OF YUNUS EMRE
Yunus Emre was loved by many people and he was a soul friend who contributed many values to the establishment of Turkish culture and civilization. There are many claims about where Yunus Emre was born, lived and died.
We can get the best information about the life period of Yunus Emre from the works; Hacıbektaş-ı Veli Velayetname and Father Yusuf’s (from Sivrihisar) Kitab-ı Mahbub-ı Mahbub. When we investigate those works we find out many place and people names which have much importance in Yunus Emre’s life. Among those; when we consider the names like Kır Şehri, Suluca Kara Höyük, Sarıköy, Sarıkaraman which are all in borders of Kırşehir and Aksaray provinces; it strengthens the possibility that the grave in the town Ulupınar belongs to Yunus Emre. The fact that Yunus met very often with Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli during training of his personality and he attended to lessons of Taptuk Emre, shows clearly us that the famous poet lived in this geography.
The centre of population Sivrihisar whose name was mentioned in Hacı Bektaş Velayetname very often is not Sivrihisar which is district of Eskişehir. Because some writers like Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı found it trustable that the names Sivrihisar Castle and Sivrihisar village mentioned very often in Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Velayetname, in İbn Bibi’s Selçukname, in Father Yusuf’s (from Sivrihisar) 401 paged Kitab-ı Mahbub-ı Mahbub which is still in Konya, in Kerimüddin Mahmud’s Müsameret-ül Ahbar and Müsameret-ül Ahyar and according to this information without investigating any more they decided that Yunus Emre was lying in the district Sivrihisar which belongs to Eskişehir province. In Eskişehir Sarıköy during the construction of a railway an unknown grave was found and it was claimed that it belongs to Yunus Emre; so that it was a goodwill and slyness of people to give name of Yunus Emre to that region. However, Sivrihisar in Ortaköy which had great importance in Yunus Emre’s life was 75 km far from Hacı Bektaş whereas it was at least 400 km far from Eskişehir Sarıköy. According to the reality that the transportation was on foot those days it is more logical that Sivrihisar which was really important for Yunus Emre’s life is Sivrihisar village near Ortaköy and Sarıköy is the place which is known as Sarıkaraman now. Moreover, Seljuk’s Sultan II. Mesut assigned Sivrihisar village which is on the south of Kırşehir to his mother as fief and this also shows how important was the region at that time.
To understand Yunus correctly means to know Taptuk Emre very well. Because Taptuk Emre was the source from whom Yunus Emre took human love. When Ottoman Empire and the Prime Ministry archieves were investigated; it was understood that Taptuk Emre’s village was Taptuk village which is in the borders of Ortaköy district of Aksaray on the south of Kırşehir. According to the work of Kadı Ahmet (from Niğde) “Al-Valad Al Şafıyk Val-Hafid al Haliyk” that he finished in 1333; it is certainly understood that Taptuk Emre lived in this geography. Moreover according to Hilmi Ziya Ülken Taptuk Emre got education from Kırşehir Medresses. According to the Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Velayetname, the grave that belongs to Taptuk Emre, Yunus’ teacher, is in mosque of Taptuk Village now. As it can be understood the place named as Sarıkaraman (Sarıköy) on the south of Kırşehir had an important place in Yunus’ life.
For the grave in Karaman; there is no clear information about that it belongs to Yunus Emre. It is assumed that the person there was alive in 1512-1513 and he was Kirişçi Baba Sheikh and his name was Katipzade Yunus Emre (from Karaman). It shouldn’t be forgotten that during the period of Yunus Emre’s life Karaman was not a city center but it was the name of a large area which includes Konya, Aksaray and Kırşehir and the city Karaman which we know today was known as Ermenek until Republic.
Farmer Yunus decided to go from Sarıköy to Hacı Bektaş to buy some wheat during a big famine. Because he didn’t want to go with empty hands he collected thorn apples on the way and gave them to Hacı Bektaş. Patron Saint liked this behavior very much and he said: “Ask him wheather he wants endeavor or wheat?”. Yunus said: “I want wheat”. After his request was done, Yunus took his wheat and goes back his way. When he arrived to the place where there was a hammam, he understood that he made a mistake and he turned back on the half way. He went near to Hacı Bektaş and said: “Take back wheat and give me endeavor”. Hacı Bektaş told him: “ It is too late. We gave your lock to Taptuk Emre. Go and take your grant there!”
According to Prof. İ. Hakkı BALTACIOĞLU, this event took place in Kırşehir. Even today there are ruins of that hammam between Hacı Bektaş and Kırşehir. This walking between Sarıköy and Hacı Bektaş (45 km) strengthens the possibility of Yunus Emre being in Kırşehir. Because the distance between Eskişehir Sarıköy and Hacı Bektaş is at least 400 km.
“Put me somewhere on the way of my sheikh Taptuk Emre so that people who pass there step on me and my body becomes lowered for my sheikh”
YUNUS EMRE
The place of Yunus Emre which is located in 1267 m high Visithill Area in Kırşehir province, Ulupınar town was firstly put on the agenda by retired Colonel Refik Soykut. By the 13 September 1982 dated decision of Cabinet; the grave was opened by experts from Ministry of Culture and the bones were sent to Ankara University Faculty of Language History and Georgraphy. After investigations it was found that the bones belong to a tall person who performed ritual pray.
As a result of made researches with the 14/10/1986 and 11103 numbered desicion of Cabinet; this area and its surrounding was announced as National Park. Yunus Emre Cenotaph was built and opened to visit in 1986 by Kırşehir Governership. Since 2001 every year Yunus Emre commemoration week is held by Kırşehir and Aksaray Governerships on the second week of September.
In the region the names given to children are mostly as Yunus, Emre, Derviş, Eren and all those names and many thorn apples in the region attracts all attention to this region.
There are rectangular windows with iron fences inside the arches of square planned stone tomb’s east and south walls. The inner cover of the tomb has a ceiling shape like a ceiling getting narrower when it goes higher. The top of this ceiling cover is protected by a square pyramid stone conical hat from outside and it is left as a square planned hole.
SUFFERING HOUSE
This suffering house is nearly 250 m far on the south of Visithill which has 1267 m height and it is assumed that after Yunus Emre who left world works behind and close himself to pray in this suffering house, dervishes also came together here to make recitation of the attributes of God.
Inner dimensions of the construction, which was built with voult dome, Horasan mortar and rubble stones, are 3,5m X 3,7 m and the thickness of the wall is nearly 110cm and it has no windows.
…COME, LET US ALL BE FRIENDS FOR ONCE,
LET US MAKE LIFE EASY ON US,
LET US BE LOVERS AND LOVED ONES,
THE EARTH SHALL BE LEFT TO NO ONE…
Yunus Emre is one of the biggest poets of Turkish language and literature, he is a big mystic and symbol of love. It is not exactly known where was he born, where did he live and many things about his life, but according to some of his lines it is understood that we met Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi. According to this information it can be assumed that Yunus Emre was born in 1240s. One of the most important things known about Yunus Emre is that; he wrote his very important work Risalet’ün-Nushiyye in H.707(C.1308) and he died in H.720 (C.1321). So that there are some clues in his poems which support the assumption that birth year of Yunus Emre was H.638(C. 1240-1241) and poet tells about Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, Ahmet Fakih, Geyikli Baba and Seydi Balum.
According to a belief of public; Yunus Emre dealt with agriculture, tied to a sheikh named as Taptuk Emre and he lived in dervish lodges and became a Saint.
…KNOWLEDGE IS TO UNDERSTAND
TO UNDERSTAND WHO YOU ARE
IF YOU KNOW NOT WHO YOU ARE
WHAT’S THE USE OF LEARNING?…
He considered “Love” as a philosophy and he argue for love, peace and tolerance. The language he used in his poems is simple and exactly the same Turkish we use today. He wrote about the themes like love, religion, morals, homesick and death. “Divan” and Risalet’ün-Nushiyye are the most important works of him which were collected and published 70 years after his death. When we look at those works, we can see that poems were written by aruz and mostly syllable metre.
...WE LOVE THE CREATED
FOR THE CREATOR’S SAKE…
GRAVES ATTRIBUTED TO YUNUS EMRE
In 1972 Yunus Emre was commemorated, introduced by UNESCO and his poems translated into many languages and his lines travelled all over the world. The number of graves attributed to Yunus Emre is total 16; 13 inside the country borders (Kırşehir,Manisa, Karaman, Eskişehir, Isparta, Bursa, Afyon, Ordu, Balıkesir, Bolu, Erzurum, Konya, Aksaray) and 3 in Azerbaijan. And this is an evidence for how much Yunus Emre was loved, adapted and not shared by people .
…NOW YUNUS, LET YOUR FEARS VANISH
WHILE FLOWERING ILLUSIONS OF THIS WORLD FADE
A TRUE MAN FIRST NEEDS LOVE, AND FROM
THEN ON HE IS NO DIFFERENT FROM A DERVISH…
LEGENDS RELATED WITH YUNUS EMRE
There was a person named Molla Kasım during the period of Yunus Emre. Someone brought Yunus Emre’s written poems to this man. He started reading them. In each poem he read; he found Moslim Religious Law contrary and he burnt and hurled it to the air. He thought it wasn’t enough to hurl and he started to put some into water. He burnt poems, threw into water and threw away but later in one of the poems took his attention it was said that:
“Yunus Emre, don’t say those words wrongly
One day a Molla Kasım comes who interrogates you”
And as soon as Molla Kasım saw this he submitted to Yunus Emre and kept the poets like a treasure that he hadn’t burnt or thrown away.
According to a rumor; the poems thrown to air are told by thousands of angels in the sky, the poems thrown to the water are told by thousands of fish under the sea and the poems kept like a treasure are told by thousands of people…
…YUNUS, GOOD NEWS ARRIVED TO YOU
YOU ARE ORDERED TO GO TO THE FRIEND
IT IS THE INVITATION OF THE ONE, WHO SAYS
“EVERYTHING WILL RETURN TO HIM”…